How soon to make increase?

[Gower]

I've a couple of standard national BBS overwintered, with 4 frames of brood at various stages in each. I split a few hives last year by AS to prevent swarming, but this year i want to split into nucs and encourage the Q- hives to produce new queens. what's the consensus about the right time to consider starting this? the hives in the apiary have started a smattering of drone brood which has been sealed for about a week, but i've not seen any drones as yet.

 

[BILL.HEARD]

Unless you are buying in queens then you will have to wait another two or three weeks before those drones are to be of any use for mating.
Suggest you double up your BC's when they are strong enough and wait until you have 12/15 frames of brood, then you will have sufficient material to do something with. I make my increase mid-May onward.

 

[Easy Beesy]

Was going to reply but bill heard has pretty much covered it all - nice one bill
Eb

 

[protheroe]

I've a couple of standard national BBS overwintered, with 4 frames of brood at various stages in each. I split a few hives last year by AS to prevent swarming, but this year i want to split into nucs and encourage the Q- hives to produce new queens. what's the consensus about the right time to consider starting this? the hives in the apiary have started a smattering of drone brood which has been sealed for about a week, but i've not seen any drones as yet.

hi gower,im not that far from you and started grafting mid april last year with good results.too early yet,no drones about.Good luck with your queen rearing and hopefully the weather will be on your side.

 

[Finman]

I've a couple of standard national BBS overwintered,

.

It is really expencive if you sacrifice your hive to queen rearing. You willl loose the honey yield and your queens will be not be good (90% probability)

So, let the hives grow as big as possible and buy the queens what you need.

.
And do not play with consensus.

 

[oliver90owner]

Never mind the drones - they will be produced by colonies which may then swarm later - due to one or more of several reasons.

Last year, most beeks were pulling their hair out at the length of time taken for the queens to get mated as the weather was not particularly conducive for the most part of May. Some were reporting unprecedented (well undocumented) times before queens finally came into lay and many were disappointed (queens not mated). This was after a particularly warm and mild April when all and sundry either made splits or had to A/S.

Sooo, if you can predict the weather, you will know when you can start.

Your planned methodology is flawed. Do not expect good queens from Q- hives - they may be OK, but are often less than optimal. You need to produce queen cells from very strong colonies, preferably few of them, for the best results.

Certainly with only four frames of brood in a deep brood is far too early to be considering splitting - they are not even yet ready for supering.

I would suggest you select the colony(ies) from which you would prefer to raise queens from; they may not be your ones in deeps. After choosing your time, demaree those hives and use the queen cells produced, under the supercedure instinct, for transferring to your splits.

RAB

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Gower, you need to wait until you've got, say, 7+ frames of brood. 4 frames is not nearly enough.
There are plenty of ways to produce good queens, RAB's suggestion is as good as any - and better than many.

 

[Gower]

morning all

thanks for the good advice. as suggested i think i 'll wait a while yet and try to raise Q's from my best 14x12 to transfer to the splits.

cheers.

 

[Arfermo]

morning all

thanks for the good advice. as suggested i think i 'll wait a while yet and try to raise Q's from my best 14x12 to transfer to the splits.

cheers.

Thank goodness!!! May will be the time and it might even be worth buying some Qs. PM me if want a good source at £20 inc postage.

 

[aberreef]

Last year I waited until the bees produced swarm cells then performed an demarree. This occured just after the first crop of honey so worked out nicely

I know, just the same as AS really but I'm sure you could split the old box into 2 or 3 depending on the number of QCs present.

 

[Skyhook]

Never mind the drones - they will be produced by colonies which may then swarm later - due to one or more of several reasons.

Last year, most beeks were pulling their hair out at the length of time taken for the queens to get mated as the weather was not particularly conducive for the most part of May. Some were reporting unprecedented (well undocumented) times before queens finally came into lay and many were disappointed (queens not mated). This was after a particularly warm and mild April when all and sundry either made splits or had to A/S.

Sooo, if you can predict the weather, you will know when you can start.

Your planned methodology is flawed. Do not expect good queens from Q- hives - they may be OK, but are often less than optimal. You need to produce queen cells from very strong colonies, preferably few of them, for the best results.

Certainly with only four frames of brood in a deep brood is far too early to be considering splitting - they are not even yet ready for supering.

I would suggest you select the colony(ies) from which you would prefer to raise queens from; they may not be your ones in deeps. After choosing your time, demaree those hives and use the queen cells produced, under the supercedure instinct, for transferring to your splits.

RAB

Just what I was going to say!

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